Mozilla becomes the first Silicon Valley heavyweight to oppose CISPA

Mozilla speaks out against CISPA

Thousands of people oppose the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), including the Obama Administration and Anonymous. The bill, which was recently passed by the United States House of Representatives, looks to give businesses and the federal government legal protection to share cyber threats with one another in an effort to prevent online attacks. Internet privacy and neutrality advocates feel as if the bill does not contain enough limits on how and when private information can be monitored. Numerous technology companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, IBM, Intel and Oracle have voiced their support for the bill. Mozilla on Tuesday, however, took a stand and announced its opposition against CISPA.

While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security, the companys privacy and public policy lead said to Forbes. The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation.

Mozillas Mountain View neighbor, Google, ha! s yet to make its stance known, and is one of the last tech firms to do so. We think this is an important issue and were watching the process closely but we havent taken a formal position on any specific legislation, a company spokesperson said. The Internet giant has previously spoken out about the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), even going as far as censoring its homepage and urging visitorsto oppose the bill.


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